European Port Cities: Insider Guides

When locals are the guide, T+L learns that there’s more than meets the eye in these European port cities.

Pisa, Italy

Designer Cecilia Iacobelli and chocolatier Paul de Bondt, husband-and-wife team behind Pisa’s De Bondt Chocolate: “This place is so much more than the Leaning Tower. There’s also a buzzing food and art scene.”

8 a.m.: The couple start their day with cappuccinos and cornetti at Keith Art Shop Café(breakfast for two $6), which recently opened opposite a colorful Keith Haring street mural.

10 a.m.: De Bondt concocts award-winning chocolates with everything from rose oil to fennel at the De Bondt Chocolate Workshop, which offers tasting tours. Meanwhile, Iacobelli checks in at the De Bondt Cioccolato e Affini, their shop downtown. In stock: artisanal teas, jams, and (yes) chocolates.

Noon: Lunch at Il Montino (lunch for two $35), a tiny restaurant with a delicious cecina (chickpea pancake) and thin-crust pizzas, is always first-rate.

2 p.m.: They visit the nearby Parco di San Rossore—a conservation zone with a racetrack—to source pine nuts and honeys.

4 p.m.: For an ice cream break, they are wild about Gelateria De’ Coltelli. Best flavors: ginger, pumpkin, and saffron.

5 p.m.: A cool new gallery to see works by emerging contemporary artists? Palazzo Blu.

8 p.m.: On weekends, Pisans love Ristorante Artilafo(dinner for two $100), which serves traditional dishes such as wild-boar tagliatelle.

2 p.m.: The way back to the Croisette is via the pedestrianized Rue Hoche, with its cafés, tearooms, and Confiserie Bruno, which makes “the world’s best marrons glacés.”

2:30 p.m.: Take a 15-minute ferry ride to the Îles de Lérins. Try wine made by monks at L’Abbaye de Lérins, on the walkable Île St.-Honorat.

8 p.m.: There’s no place like La Table du Chef(dinner for two $110) for haute comfort food. Reserve ahead.

10 p.m.: The English-style lounge Le Black Pearl(drinks for two $33) is perfect for a nightcap. —Alexandra Marshall

Helsinki, Finland

Ville Kokkonen, director of Artek, the Finnish furniture company cofounded by Alvar Aalto in 1935: “With its Modernist designs and small islands just off the coast, Helsinki tends to inspire creative minds.”

10 a.m.: From Market Square, take a ferry to Suomenlinna(suomenlinna.fi), an 18th-century island fortress and unesco World Heritage site. Explore the huge granite ramparts before heading to the cliffs for “an unforgettable Baltic vista.”

Noon: For Finnish specialties like pike cake with a pickled-cucumber sauce, Kokkonen visits Ravintola Juuri(lunch for two $40), in Kantakaupunki. While in the area, he drops by the national Design Museum.

2 p.m.:Aalto House(admission $23) is a “unique shrine to the Modernist era.” A minimalist white box, it contains many of Aalto’s iconic, sculptural pieces.

4 p.m.: When it comes to vintage shopping, the Kruununhaka district is unbeatable. Vanhaa Ja Kaunista, Finnish for “old and beautiful,” sells tumblers by Aino Aalto (Alvar’s first wife).

8 p.m.:Ateljé Finne(dinner for two $100), a former sculptor’s studio in the Töölö area, has contemporary local dishes (elk sausage; stuffed Baltic herring) and “lots of character.”